CROSS-STRAIT TIES
Wait for panda baby viewing
The female panda born on Saturday at Taipei Zoo will meet the public within the next six months, a zoo official said yesterday. The animal, the first offspring of Yuan Yuan (圓圓) and her mate Tuan Tuan (團團), is being kept in an incubator under the watchful eye of zoo workers. “The next week will be crucial,” said Chang Chih-hua (張志華), convener of the zoo’s giant panda breeding center, saying that baby pandas have a high death rate in the first week after birth. The rate is even worse for pandas born to first-time mothers, Chang said. Zoo personnel will watch for weight gain. The baby panda weighted 183.4g at birth, high for a newborn giant panda, which normally weigh between 120g and 150g at birth, Chang said. The zoo will let the public participate in the naming of the baby, Chang added. The baby panda, whose gender was determined yesterday, is the result of the third insemination effort. The zoo yesterday released a recording of the delivery, which showed the baby producing loud and clear cries at birth and the mother picking up the baby in her mouth and bringing it to her chest. However, the baby sustained a small wound to her right leg while she was struggling in her mother’s mouth, Chang said. Two panda conservation experts from Sichuan Province have arrived in Taipei to help care for the newborn.
Photo: AFP / Taipei City Zoo
INDUSTRY
Ma touts local soy sauce
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday touted the soy sauce industry as creative during a visit to Yunlin County organized to boost the confidence of the traditional industry sector. Ma and his entourage visited a soy sauce factory owned by the Ruei Chun Co in Hsilo Township (西螺), reviewing the automated facility and the production lines. Ma said the firm, established in 1921, has developed a new competitive edge. Amid concerns over Taiwan’s service trade liberalization and opening to China, Ma encouraged traditional businesses to strengthen their industrial structure and step up efforts to create additional value. He also instructed government agencies to adjust regulations for packaging, recycling and labeling as part of efforts to help the industry make better use of resources. Siluo is a cluster area for soy sauce producers and in order to revive the traditional industry, many companies have established tourism factories there to diversify their business.
SPORTS
Russia honors IOC’s Wu
Wu Ching-kuo (吳經國), Taiwan’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, was awarded the Order of Merit by Russia on Saturday in honor of his dedication to sport, according to a statement from Wu’s office. Wu received the award from Russian Minister of Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitaly Leontiyevich Mutko, along with the presidents of the Badminton World Federation, the International Weightlifting Federation, the Judo World Federation and the International University Sports Federation. Wu, 66, was elected in May last year to be a member of the 15-member IOC Executive Board, the first Taiwanese to be elected. He has been an IOC member since 1988. He is also president of the International Boxing Association. Wu is one of the contenders for the IOC presidency, which will be determined later this year.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods